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The WallBuilders Show is a daily journey to examine today's issues from a Biblical, Historical and Constitutional perspective. Featured guests include elected officials, experts, activists, authors, and commentators.
The WallBuilders Show
Property, Freedom, And The Good Society
Start with a simple question: what happens to freedom when property fades? We dive into that pressure point with a story that runs from Genesis to Philadelphia, tracing how stewardship, ownership, and consent form the backbone of a free society. Tim Barton walks through the biblical roots of private property—creation, cultivation, and commands that forbid stealing and coveting—then highlights the stark warning of 1 Samuel 8, where centralized power “takes” until liberty shrivels. That ancient caution feels modern when set against ideologies that dream of abolishing ownership and replacing personal responsibility with administrative control.
We connect those roots to America’s founding mind. John Locke’s case for government as a trust to preserve property shaped the Revolution and the Constitution. Samuel Adams named life, liberty, and property as natural rights with the authority to defend them “in the best manner” possible. We unpack why Jefferson wrote “pursuit of happiness” instead of “property,” guided by George Mason’s influence and a refusal to sanctify slavery. Happiness here means human flourishing—virtue, family, work—sustained by the right to acquire and keep the fruits of one’s labor. John Dickinson’s crisp test frames our present: if others may by right take what is yours without consent, neither property nor freedom is secure.
The conversation lands with practical stakes for legislators and citizens: guard against regulatory takings, tighten eminent domain to true public use with just compensation, and restore transparency so consent is real, not assumed. Teach the next generation why property is not greed but the space where responsibility lives. If you care about religious liberty, family stability, entrepreneurship, and fair elections, start by securing the ground beneath them—private property.
If this resonates, share it with a friend who sees it differently and ask them to test the claims. Subscribe for more constitutional, historical, and biblical insights, leave a review to help others find the show, and pass this along to someone in public office who needs clear, principled footing.
Rick Green [00:00:07] Welcome to the Intersection of Faith and Culture. It's The WallBuilders Show, taking on the hot topics of the day from a biblical, historical, and constitutional perspective. Rick Green here with David and Tim Barton, and of course you can learn more about us and the program at wallbuilders.show. For all of the previous programs or the last few weeks and months that you might have missed and that you need to share with your friends and family, that's wallbuilders.show, and then our main website is wallbuilders.com. That's where you can get all kinds of great materials to educate yourself and your family. It's entertaining education and it is fun to learn these kinds of things. Plus, it empowers you to impact the people in your lives better and to be ready to answer, you know, first Peter 3:15 is something we need to really take to heart right now. You gotta be ready answer for the hope that is within. You got to have that biblical and civic literacy instead of biblical and civic ignorance so that you can help educate the people in your life and we can turn this whole thing around. That's what it's going to take, but we need to know the principles to be able to do that. And so what we're gonna do this week is we're going to go back out to the Pro-Family Legislators Conference. We're gonna be joining Tim Barton in a presentation that he gave there just a few weeks back about property, about the biblical foundation of our nation and how these concepts that produce the greatest economy and not only free market, but also elections and all the freedoms that we enjoy, the foundational principles that produce that are biblical principles. And if we go back to those principles, we can get the same result again. So, this is going to be really cool to learn this from Tim. He was teaching this to actual state reps and senators from across the country. They come in once a year and join us for the Pro-Family Legislators Conference in Dallas. But we love sharing that with you. And so you've heard a couple of, uh, we've shared a few of those programs by McEwen last week and some others, but this week, I think you're really going to enjoy learning from Tim, just as the legislators did, and it's something I think, you're going to want to share, so get your, you know, kind of hover your mouse over that share button and make sure that you are sending this to your friends and your family and others that you know, need to know these truths. It's not just a, it's not just to right. I mean, it’s not a privilege that we have to use our free speech and our voices. It's really a duty. It's responsibility. It's actually being, unfortunately it's, it it's being the wicked and slothful servant when we don't steward what we've been given. And so if you have been given truth through these programs or other studies that you've done, then to be a good steward of that, you got to share it. Can't just keep it to yourself, man. You got to help reach other people, be a force multiplier to help turn the country around. And that's why I think the WallBuilders show is an easy way to do that because you can lean on just like I do. I mean, I have the privilege every day of being on here with David and Tim Barton and I get to lean on their expertise, their research, their amazing museum and the library with over 100,000 original documents. And so, you can do the same thing using the program as your experts and sending that out to folks. And maybe that you send this to people that don't share your beliefs and convictions or maybe they've expressed things that you know they believe the opposite of what we're saying here on the program. Well, send them the program and say, hey, I heard this on this radio show or this podcast; could you tell me where they're wrong? Could you show me where this is incorrect. I love challenging people like that. I tell parents all the time, if they got a kid that's been brainwashed at college, you know, give them my book, Freedom's Frame and say, hey, this crazy guy came and spoke at our church or conference or whatever, and he said all these things about the Declaration of Independence and the faith of the founders. Would you read his book and show me where he's wrong? Cause this can't be right. So, in other words, you're just, you you're making them do the homework. You're putting the truth in front of them. And of course, not everybody's going to see it. Not everybody's gonna have eyes to see. There's definitely a deception in our land. And there's also a a bent towards not being willing to listen, literally not wanting to hear anything that doesn't confirm the bias that's already there. And so, you may face some of that when you use this tactic that I'm sharing with you of taking the program and sharing with somebody or taking one of the WallBuilders or Patriot Academy books and sharing it with somebody. They may not listen, they may not even be willing to read or listen and sometimes they'll do it and then just argue with you or maybe come up with some stuff that they wanna counter with. Hey, that's great. That's civil discourse that gives you a chance to at least have the conversation with them. So just an idea I encourage you to do that. We're gonna take a quick break when we come back We'll join Tim Barton at the Pro-Family Legislators Conference
Rick Green [00:05:40] Welcome back to The WallBuilders Show. Thanks for staying with us. All right, that's time to jump in. This is Tim Barton speaking at the Pro-Family Legislators Conference.
Tim Barton [00:05:46] The title is Life, Liberty, Property. Really, what I want to do is get into kind of the notion and conversation of private property. The reason is life, liberty, property was the idea from the founding fathers. Jefferson obviously said life, liberty, pursuit of happiness. There was a reason for that. I'll mention that as well. But given the state we are in, there are obviously lots of issues regarding property. And so, I want to give some biblical and historic thoughts to help as you navigate, and you need to, in your state, what we can do on some of the private property thoughts. Now, the first thing, this should be a no-brainer for us. I'm going to take us through some Bible thoughts. The first thing—one of the things that Psalmist tells us in Psalm 24.1, the earth is the Lord's and all its fullness. Why does this matter? Because one of our starting places as Christians is that we are only stewards of whatever God gives us, right? So, we, caveat, we totally believe in private property, but we also believe we're stewarding it for what God has given us and we need to steward well and what does that look like? Now, again, obvious Bible thoughts: we know that God's the one that made this whole thing. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. So, this is all God's, again, reaffirming the stewardship thought. It was only after God made the heavens and the Earth that then God actually does create man. And in the image of God, He created them male and female, right? We know the Bible says, But then, even at the very beginning... The Bible tells us why God put us here. He says, God blessed them. And God said to them, be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and subdue it, right? Now, again, these are obvious Bible thoughts. I'm just walking us through some of this Bible thought and logic leading into more of this private property understanding because the Founding Fathers were incredibly influenced by Bible knowledge, thoughts, and understanding. This is part of the framework to even understand more of their thoughts and conversation. God obviously made the world. God said okay people you are in charge of what I created and to reaffirm this you can go to places like in Genesis 2 where the Lord took man put him in the Garden of Eden to tend to keep it. The reason, right, that God does this, He says, Hey, I got something I want you to take care of. Again, it's a stewardship thought, a stewardship reality. If you go a little further getting again, this is private property thought discussion. When you get to the Abrahamic covenant and God tells Abraham, and this is not, this is not the Israel conversation. This is private properties want to walk you through this. God tells, Abraham, I'm going to give you a land. Right. I'm going to make you people, but I'm gonna give you a land. And as you track through the story of God giving them land and how it all unfolds, you will go from Abraham. Obviously, we learn about Joseph and Joseph's brothers sold him into slavery. But this is the image of Jacob, Israel, blessing his sons. We know that the family moves into Egypt, but when Genesis finishes and then it picks up in Exodus, we know there's been several hundred years, and when it picks up, it talks about how there was a new leader in Egypt, right? A new Pharaoh who didn't remember Joseph, didn't member the brothers, and so the Israelites are enslaved. In the midst of this, God raises up a deliverer. Again, you know the story. I'm just walking through some of this because after God does these incredible miracles, the Israelites are freed and delivered, right? They walk across dry ground in the Red Sea, God leads them to Mount Sinai. And when they get to Mount Sinai and God lays out commands for them, and again, this is establishing a nation where God's already told him He's gonna give them land, the commands that God lays for them of the Ten Commandments as an example. So like again, these are the obvious ones in the Ten Commandments, two of them deal with private property. Now again, that's worth noting because we already know God owns it all, we're stewards, but we're in charge. We are supposed to be responsible. But God clearly then says that first of all, we don't steal what somebody else's and secondly, don't even covet. And it's worth unfolding this thought because a lot of times we misunderstand the idea of coveting in America because we see somebody with a nice truck and we're like, man, I would love to have a nice track like that. That's not coveting. Coveting is when you're thinking, I'm gonna go punch that guy in the face, take his keys and drive away with a truck. Coveting is thinking, I'm taking what someone else has, not I would like the blessings that someone else has enjoyed. That's a very different thought. In America, we don't understand this because we've lived with so much blessing that we think things are attainable for us too. That is not what this command is talking about. This command is talk about you saw someone's wife, you saw someone’s servants, you saw their oxen and donkey and you're like, I want that and you're imagining, dreaming, inspiring, taking that from them. But here's why it matters because the Bible says you don't take somebody else's stuff and don't even dream of taking somebody else stuff. Right? This is the principle behind some of this. This is the way it was, God's standard for the Israelites for hundreds of years. When did it change? It's interesting. You can track this in the Bible. It changed in First Samuel chapter 8.
Rick Green [00:10:55] Alright guys, gotta interrupt for one more break today, stay with us, you're listening to The WallBuilders Show.
Rick Green [00:12:01] Welcome back to The WallBuilders Show, going back to Tim Barton at the Pro-Family Legislators Conference.
Tim Barton [00:12:12] The Israelite said hey everybody else has a king, we want a king! And remember Samuel cautions them and he says this is a terrible idea, let me count the ways. Right? And literally, I mean, verse after verse after verse, the king is going to come in and he's going to take your daughters and and, in the court, and what's going to take your sons in the army and he is going to take you livestock and it goes through verse after verse, after verse of taking and it included that he will take your property. You will no longer have property rights. And this was a warning to the nation of Israel to the people going, this is the exact opposite of what you would want. Now, I think it's interesting because the Bible shows the obvious caution of this being the exact opposite of someone would want and it's interesting that there are mirror image thoughts. Rabbi Lapin mentioned this yesterday. There can be mirror image thoughts that whatever the Bible says, the devil's game plan is exactly what the Bible says in reverse, right? And so, the idea where God says, hey, you know, we believe in private property. Well, if God's promoting something, guess who's against it, right? Well, the people against it. Right? Not that Karl Marx is the devil. However, if you go back and read the Communist Manifesto, right, what is also very clear in the Communist Manifesto it says the theory of communists may be summed up in a single sentence, the abolition of private property. Now again, just contrast, the Bible teaches private property. We believe in private property, the preservation of private property don't even dream about taking somebody else's property. And Karl Marx says, our dream is that nobody owns property. Well, that seems crazy. Who would have a dream about nobody owning property? Because nobody would like that idea. Right? Until you get to the 2030 Agenda from the World Health Organization, where literally this essay was written in 2016. And it was the ambitions of what could be accomplished by 2030. And remember one of those essays, then this is only a line from it, you can read the whole essay because the whole thing is as egregious. But the idea was that you will own nothing and you will be happy. That's a literal line from it. Okay. Now, again, I'm just showing you a little contrast real quick on this. The Bible was super clear, private property, that was a blessing given by God to individuals. And the lie of the devil always was, right? Whatever God wants for you, whatever God has for you, that's not really good for you! There is a whole generation growing up with this idea. Oh yeah, you know, it'd be so much easier if just the government had everything. Go back and read 1 Samuel 8, like this was the caution, how dangerous it is. Now, again, part of the reason this matters, the Founding Fathers were students of the Bible, also, one of the guys who was a major voice in the founding era was John Locke. John Locke is the one who wrote the Two Treatises of Government. John Locke was the most quoted individual during the American Revolution by the Founding Fathers. Now, he wasn't the most-quoted source. The most- quoted source was the Bible. It wasn't even close, but John Locke, if you've never read the Two Treaties of Government, it's a difficult read. However, it really is super informative. He was arguing against Sir Richard Filmer, who was an advocate of the divine right of Kings, writing in the defense of Kings. And part of the things that he argued was not only that God speaks for Kings, but God has given Kings authority and like full autonomy over the land. They're in control and Filmer was actually using the Bible to defend its position. Now. By saying he was using the Bible to defend his position. That's like the devil using the bible against Jesus to defend the devil's position, right? Like that's not what the Bible said. And so, John Locke writes back, in the entire First Treatise is a reminder and proper exegesis where he says, you said this, that's what the bible said. The Bible says this is what it means. And he quotes 1500 Bible verses on the proper role of government, specifically, even in regard to the king. Well, John Locke is the guy where the phrase of life, liberty and property largely attributed to John Locke, partly because he made arguments about it in the Two Treaties of Government which again was incredibly influential for the Founding Fathers. Here's one of the quotes from that document. He said the great and chief end thereof of men's uniting in the Commonwealths and putting themselves under government is the preservation of their property. Now he's arguing historically, why did people come together initially? Why did we form these governments and communities? It was to preserve private property, not so the government would be able to control and take away. No, that's the exact opposite. But the idea of private property, very strong from the teaching of John Locke in 1690, leading into the Founding Fathers, you have obvious voices like Sam Adams who was not only a leader of the Sons of Liberty, he was known as the voice of the revolution, the father of the Revolution, an incredible guy for lots of reasons. As a leader of the Sons of Liberty, he wrote the very first ever Committee of Correspondence. And if you've never read it, I highly encourage you to do it. It was written in 1772. I have so many good thoughts, but in it, there's a very famous line and I'm going to give a little more context to that line, but in it he said: among the natural rights of the colonists are these. First, a right to life. Secondly, to liberty. Thirdly, to property together with the right to support and defend them in the best manner they can. Now also, that speaks a lot of the Second Amendment, because when you have the right to defend them the best manner they can, and people are like, the Second amendment only applies to muskets. That's actually not what they argued. They said the best manor you can, right? And when President Biden was like, well, you need F-16s to defend against the government. And I'm like, then give us F- 16s, right. I need the best defense I can. That's Sam Adams coming out in me.
Rick Green [00:18:15] One more break today, folks. Stay with us. You're listening to The WallBuilders Show.
Rick Green [00:20:26] We're back here on The WallBuilders Show jumping back in with Tim Barton speaking at the Pro-Family Legislators Conference.
Tim Barton [00:20:31] Let me point out, Sam Adams says life, liberty, property. He doesn't say life, Liberty, pursuit of happiness. It's life, liberty, property, because they understood what was the threat of the king? The threat of the king, the threat of the tyrannical government was you don't actually get to be in charge of your property. You don't own your property, it's one of my problems with some of the HOAs when they're like, yeah, you own property, but you can't build stuff on your property and I'm like, you've misunderstood private property in so many areas, right? Now, if you voluntarily chose to live there, that might be a different conversation. However, this is something that the Founding Fathers were clear on life, liberty, property. The reason it matters is as you study their writings. Most people think about the Founding Fathers in context, especially today, of the Declaration. When Jefferson writes the Declaration, the very famous second paragraph of the Declaration, where he says, we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, they're endowed by their Creator with certain and inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And so today we go, well, it's life, liberty, pursuit of, happiness, and also that's why some people use pursuit of happiness as an argument for licentious living, because this is what makes me happy, right? Like we should be allowed to have homosexual marriage in America because it's my pursuit of happiness. That's not what they're talking about. Not even close. But Jefferson did say pursuit of Happiness and not property. Why? Well, there's a couple reasons and actually historians have documented this, not the least of which. One of the mentors for Thomas Jefferson was a guy named George Mason. George Mason, the month before the Declaration, he releases the Virginia Declaration of Rights, which was very influential on the Founding Fathers and on the Declaration. Now, a couple of side notes about George Mason as well. George Mason is also the guy known as the father of the Bill of Rights. Because he was the guy at the Constitutional Convention who, as he's helping build the Constitution, he said, guys, this is not a complete document. And so we have a listing of things inalienable rights that the government can never infringe upon. Because if we don't have a, we know just the nature of governments that over time they're going to grow big and the bigger they get, the more oppressive they're gonna be. And if we do not have a listening of things they can never touch, then this is an incomplete document. Well, he became the advocate for having a Bill of Rights, who is known as the father of the Bill of Rights. And he actually says there were two reasons he didn't sign the Constitution. The first one is because it didn't have a bill of rights. The second one is cause it didn’t end slavery in America. Now part of also why this matters is he again is one of the friends and mentors of Thomas Jefferson. If you read the Virginia Declaration of Rights, you will notice a few interesting phrases from it. It says that all men are by nature equally free and independent and have certain inherent rights of which when they enter into a state of society, they cannot by any compact deprive or divest their posterity, namely the enjoyment of life and liberty with the means of acquiring and possessing property and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety. Now, this comes out the month before the Declaration, written by the friend and mentor of Jefferson. And again, use a similar language. Well, again, why would Jefferson say, pursuit of happiness and not property? One of the things that Mason advocated for that actually historians believe Jefferson thought as well is there were some people that tried to use the argument that owning slaves was their property. And they said, that's not what we're talking about, right? The king is saying, you don't own any land and it's all subject to me. And we believe that God has given people the ability to own their own property, right? That you can be the king of your own castle. This is this is all that thought. So, George Mason's the guy laying this out. Now, he's not the only Founding Father going through this exercise as well of property. You have guys like John Dickinson. He was known as the penman of the revolution. He wrote a lot of essays. This is even before the Sons of Liberty, like leading into this moment, helping stir the people up in Pennsylvania. He also was a governor. He was a member of the Constitution, the Continental Congress before. Then he was a Governor of Pennsylvania and Delaware. He was in a signer of the US Constitution. So, he's involved in virtually all of it. One of the early essays he wrote, trying to encourage Americans against tyranny dealt with property. It said, let these truths be indelibly impressed on our minds that we cannot be happy without being free. We cannot be free without being secure in our property that we cannot but be secure in our property if without our consent others may by right take it away.
Rick Green [00:25:08] Out of time for today, folks will pick up with Tim Barton tomorrow. The conference, the Pro-Family Legislators Conference has become one of the most important events every year for rebuilding liberty in our country because it, it gathers hundreds of legislators from across the nation to exchange ideas, to sharpen each other's countenance, to hear from speakers like Tim and of course, David and others, and then take those ideas back to their states and pass legislation that, that either they come up with at the conference. To solve a problem that we're facing. Or maybe, you know, some legislators at the conference that passed it in their state, seeing good results, they share it with the other legislators, then they go back and it spreads across the country. So, it's a really, really cool exchange of ideas from a biblical perspective. So pro-family legislators are those who understand the values that the nation was built upon. They're pro-family, they're pro God, they're pro-Constitution. It's, it's a really cool conference and, and it's, it's encouraging when you see that many of them getting fired up about these ideas and then going back in their states and, and getting it done. And, so this talk from, from Tim is meant to help give them the intellectual ammunition they need, kind of the grounding, the foundation, the, the you know, the backdrop of why they're fighting for certain pieces of legislation with regard to property. So, wallbuilders.show is our radio site. That's where you can catch up on all the programs. And then wallbuilders.com for everything else that we do here at WallBuilders. So, if you tuned in kind of partway through today, this one's already available on the website right now. Just be sure and tune in tomorrow. Don't miss it. You've been listening to the WallBuilders Show.
